Many political scientists treat Poland as a democracy that confront the challenges from the "tyranny of the majority", since Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) party gained parliamentary majority in 2015. It is also considered that using constitutional amendments, institutional arrangements and new legislation PiS has deeply divided Polish society.

The aim of the paper is to examine the multidimensional nature of hidden social divisions that strongly reapear in Poland after 2015. In the paper authors analyze their historical aspects, visualize them and try to disclose direct impact that political narration of the winning party has on them. By analyzing PiS stance – presented at the official PiS YouTube channel – in the light of classical Lipset-Rokkan theory of socio-political cleavages we are trying to show that discursive strategies adopting by parties might go against existing deep-rooted social divisions due to historical narration adopted by the party.

Key words:

Post-Rokkanian analysis, Semantic Network Analysis, cleavages

The main purpose of this article is to present the link between the level of media and information literacy (MIL) and political preferences of Polish students based on empirical research. MIL is a key issue for today’s societies as it equips citizens with the skills needed to use various media and information channels and exercise their basic human rights. Phenomena such as post-truth, the way people are more inclined to accept arguments based on emotions and beliefs than facts, disinformation and fake news are an important context and subject of ongoing scientific discussions. Keeping in mind the limitations of self-report methods, the authors combine the elements of students’ self-assessment with the questions that test their theoretical knowledge and competences related to recognizing fake news. The research sample consists of 870 students of social sciences and journalism. The results of the research provide detailed knowledge about the level of MIL as well as political preferences of students. By that, authors hope to contribute to the global scientific discussion, offering their research conducted in the context of the declining quality of democracy in Poland.

Electoral defeat has sometimes been called the mother of party change, but is this reputation warranted? In this paper we investigate whether party characteristics such as government status, party systemic origins, or ideological family affect how parties respond to defeat. Examining 73 parties in 28 countries, considering party efforts to change their leadership, their programs and their organizations, we conclude that only systemic origin (post-communist vs. West European countries) is a relevant factor affecting depth of party change. Parties take some corrective actions after electoral defeat, however, they are not likely to be a wholesale reforms. Thus, it would be more accurate to describe electoral defeat as a midwife of a party change, not as its mother.

Cities create a transcultural sphere and a platform for transcultural dialogue.Cities play an important cultural-creative role and they try to become policy player onat the international level. The aim of this study is to evaluate the actions taken in cities from two perspectives. On the one hand how the multicultural (multi-lingual and multi-religious) cityscape is shaped, how the city is governed in order to create a space termed as a ‘meeting place’. On the other hand how these undertakings affect the image of the city on the international stage and how they contribute to the city diplomacy strategy.

2018 midterm elections in the United States allowed more ethnically and racially diverse candidates to become members of the Congress. The use of social media tools helped them to reach out to their community and get out the vote, which is especially important in Democratic campaign tactics. The article, by focusing on Colin Allred's and Andy Kim's Congressional bids, focuses on how their issue-oriented campaigns helped to mobilize the liberal voters. Furthermore, by analysing the rapidly changing demographics, it tackles the crucial question: do they mean the doom of the Republican Party?